TIS THE SEASON...FOR ROMANCE (WESTMORELAND/MASTERS/JEFFERIES)

by Jackson, Brenda

  Maureen flashed him a smile. “Thanks, Orin.”

  He nodded before lifting the phone. He had a product manager on line four and two more individuals in line with questions. Potential customers were not only interested in the product, they wanted to know about such things are warranties, insurance, and product liabilities.

  After handling the caller on line four he glanced over at Maureen. “When will Cathy be back?”

  Maureen glanced over at him and smiled. “I’m not sure. I appreciated her volunteering to go below and work with them. That’s a display of real flexibility.”

  Orin nodded. He didn’t want to think Cathy had volunteered to work a booth in the basement to avoid him today. Did that mean she had regrets about last night?

  “You owe me something for helping you out today, Orin,” Maureen was saying.

  Orin lifted a brow. “Do I?”

  “Yes, a cold beer would be nice and dinner would be even better. I know a place not far from here. I saw it earlier and -”

  “Sorry, Maureen, I’m pretty beat so I’m going to pass.”

  And he wouldn’t dare think about ending the sentence with some lie like – maybe some other time- because he didn’t want to give her any ideas. There would be no other time. Pushy women turned him off and he’d discovered she was one of the pushiest.

  She leaned closer and said, “I’m known to give a mean back rub.”

  He smiled. “Thanks, but after a day like today, I don’t want anything mean coming my way.”

  From her facial expression he could tell she didn’t appreciate his weak attempt at humor. She gave him a not-so-nice look and said, “Suit yourself.”

  Orin suddenly felt as if he’d been hit with a blast of cold air. He shrugged. At the moment Maureen Beckman was the last woman on his mind. Cathy was, and later he would talk to her to determine why she’d deliberately avoided him today.

  * * *

  When Cathy let herself in her hotel room later that evening she could think of a lot of names to describe Maureen Beckman and none of them were nice. Cathy refused to be paranoid but she was convinced Maureen had deliberately kept her downstairs in the basement and away from Orin.

  Initially Maureen had told her she would only be needed for a couple of hours and she would be back to relieve her. When she didn’t show up, Cathy had no alternative but to stay. Otherwise she would have left the man working with her on his own. Neither of them had taken a lunch break and Cathy had worked with Orin long enough to know that broke not only company but federal laws as well.

  She was tempted to walk across the hall to see if Orin was in. As much as she’d looked forward to seeing him, she hadn’t caught a glimpse of him all day and was somewhat disappointed that he hadn’t come to the basement looking for her. Evidently she’d put more stock in the personal hours they’d spent together last night than he did.

  She went into the bedroom and began stripping off her clothes. She would soak in the tub filled with soap bubbles. After picking up boxes and handling all kinds of equipment she wasn’t familiar with she was not a happy camper. She had hoped that since last night had gone so well Orin would suggest they go out again tonight. Evidently, she thought, as she entered her bathroom, that wouldn’t be happening.

  * * *

  Orin sat behind the desk in his hotel suite and drummed his fingers on the mahogany surface. He had heard Cathy enter her hotel room and he would give her time to get settled before knocking on her door and demanding to know why she’d avoided him today.

  He got up and began pacing. The first thing he did was dismiss the thought from his mind that he’d pissed Maureen off when he’d turned her down for drinks after today’s event. That much had been evident when she hadn’t asked him another single question. And he’d noticed she’d gotten somewhat short with a couple of potential clients.

  He turned at the sound of his cell phone ranging and crossed the room to pick it up off the table where he’d left it. “Hello?”

  “Hi, Dad, how are things going?”

  He couldn’t help the smile that touched his face upon hearing his daughter’s voice. She was a married woman now but she still remembered her dad. “I’m fine sweetheart. How are you and Reggie?”

  “We’re fine. He helped out at the gallery today.” She paused and then asked. “And how is Cathy doing, Dad?”

  He took Libby’s question in stride since he knew just how much Libby liked Cathy. “She was doing fine yesterday. I haven’t seen her today.”

  “Really? Isn’t that odd? After all, I thought the purpose of her going was to help you.”

  Orin rubbed the back of his neck. “That was supposed to be the purpose, but she was needed elsewhere and volunteered to go.”

  “Oh.”

  Orin decided he wanted to change the subject, and he did so by asking. “Have you talked to either Terrence or Duan today?”

  He shared a conversation with his daughter for ten minutes longer, and when he hung up the phone he paced the room a few more times before finally deciding he would pay Cathy a visit.

  * * *

  Cathy had slipped into a lounger after taking her shower and decided she would order room service. She had just pulled a menu out the desk drawer to take a look at it when there was a knock at her door.

  Butterflies went off in her stomach at the thought her visitor might be Orin. She glanced down at herself and figured her outfit, a paisley print caftan, was decent enough. She pulled in a deep breath after looking through the peephole to confirm it was Orin. Had he come to apologize for avoiding her today, or was he there to inform her that he preferred them going back to the strictly business policy?

  Taking another deep breath, she opened the door.

  Seven

  The moment the door opened Orin gaze held Cathy’s. For a long moment he devoured her features while thinking of how much he’d wanted to see her today. At one point he’d almost sought her out, but then decided if she needed the time to deal with their non-business relationship; especially the kiss they had shared, he would give it to her. But now he wanted answers.

  The kiss.

  The memory of the kiss they’d shared had heat pounding through every part of his body and it had been that way most of the day. He’d kept busy to avoid Maureen, but every free moment he’d had, he had thought about Cathy. And seeing her standing there before him, he knew why. In a way he’d known all along, but being here with her on this trip had pretty much confirmed it. Had put things in perspective. He was in love with her and had been for years.

  And so they needed to talk. If she preferred things to go back to being strictly business between them then that’s the way things would be. The last thing he wanted was to give her any reason to avoid him again. He couldn’t handle it if she did.

  “Orin?”

  Hearing his name from her lips made him blink and he wondered how long he’d been standing there staring at her. It took every ounce of his self-control not to reach out and pull her into his arms; kiss her again tonight like had last night. Forcing those thoughts from his mind he asked, “Cathy. May I come in?”

  “Yes.”

  She stepped aside for him to enter. He turned and his gaze roamed over her. “Nice outfit.”

  “Thanks. Would you like something to eat or drink? I still have some of those snacks from yesterday and -”

  “No, I’m fine.”

  He then rubbed the back of his neck, sucked in a deep breath. “That’s a lie because I’m not fine, Cathy,” he decided to be honest and say. “I’d like to know why you were avoiding me today.”

  Cathy blinked, certain she had heard him wrong. But the look on his face indicated she hadn’t. There was a tenseness in his jaw and the eyes staring at her was a mixture of desire and frustration.

  She swallowed deeply. “I wasn’t avoiding you, Orin. Maureen Beckman sent me to the basement to help those guys work the booth down there. They were short-handed.”

  He lifted a brow. “She
sent you?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you didn’t volunteer?”

  She looked surprised that he would ask such a thing. “Of course not. Why would I volunteer? It was my understanding, the reason I’m here is to assist you with the legal binders. Maureen…Ms. Beckman, told me she would help you.”

  Cathy paused. “If you knew where I was then why didn’t you come down to the basement. I looked for you. When I didn’t see you I figured evidently you regretted last night.”

  He stared at her for a long time before slowly crossing the room to her, closing the distance between them. “And I thought you were avoiding me because you regretted last night. I wanted to give you the space I thought you needed.”

  At that moment he decided to give it to her straight. “For crying out loud, Cathy, to be totally honest with you, the reason you’re here is because I couldn’t imagine being gone out of the office for a long period of time without having you around me.”

  From her expression he could tell his words had come as a shock. “That can’t be true,” she said.

  “It is true. And it took last night for me to realize just how true it is. That’s why I’ve never let my guard completely down with you. And it’s the main reason why whenever we spent time together I’d always put a business spin on it. Even those times when I was running for the senate and you would drop by the house to help me with my speeches. As long as I could convince myself there was nothing personal between us then all was well.”

  She nodded. “What happened this time?” she asked in a soft voice.

  He smiled. “Last night happened. Beginning with that,” he said, gesturing over to the door that led out on the balcony.

  “To sit out there with you and share such a beautiful view, to eat dinner with you. And you don’t know how awful I felt when you told me about Maureen’s attitude toward you because I realized that without doing so, I might have been doing the same thing but for a different reason. My reason had nothing to do with any problem I have with fraternizing with a non-management employee, although it might have seemed that way to you, whenever I would define your position to anyone. I realize now I was doing it to remind myself that I couldn’t have a personal relationship with you because I thought I wasn’t ready. Thanks to Susan, that emotional side of me had gotten shredded.”

  “And now?” she asked.

  “And now I can see what I’ve been missing. I enjoyed spending time with you last night in Times Square and then Harlem. And then later, when I really threw caution to the wind and kissed you. Do you know how long I’ve wanted to do that? How many times I thought about doing it whenever we were alone?”

  “No.”

  “Then I guess you don’t know how many nights I lay in my bed dreaming about you or how I would have to drum up every ounce of control I could muster whenever I summoned you into my office.”

  “I didn’t know.”

  Orin chuckled softly. “I’m sure you didn’t. If you had, you probably would have avoided me like the plague. I kept reminding myself I was a fifty-six-year-old man. I had grown children. Yet, I wanted you with a hunger that could bring me to my knees whenever I allowed it to consume me. Then there were the times I would fight it and I would be consumed anyway. Like that night I saw you at the rodeo. But something else consumed me that night, too. Jealousy. For the first time since I’d met you, I confronted the thought of losing you to someone else.”

  He pulled in a deep breath. “Well, there you have it. After saying all of that, I hope you can see why I would not have avoided you today.”

  Cathy pulled in a deep breath and lowered her gaze to study the floor as she tried to control all the emotions flowing through her body at that moment. She had heard Orin’s words but it was hard to believe all those times she had wanted him that he had wanted her as well. She had known what his wife’s betrayal had done to him and that was the reason she had been willing to love him secretly. It had been enough just to know he needed her even if it was only for business reasons.

  “Cathy?”

  She tilted her head up and immediately her gaze was snarled by a dark set of eyes. He was such a handsome man and he was the man she loved and had secretly loved for twelve years now.

  “Yes, Orin?”

  “Do you have anything to say?”

  She couldn’t help the smile that touched her lips. If only he knew how much she had to say. But she would talk later. She would use this time to show him, believing in the old cliché that action speaks louder than words.

  Cathy took a step, which placed her body practically plush with his, and noted he hadn’t taken a step back. And when she reached out for him he reached out for her, wrapping his arms around her waist at the same exact moment he lowered his mouth to hers.

  The same tongue that had aroused her last night was playing havoc with her senses now as his tongue tangled with hers; stirring a degree of passion she’d never felt before. And he was making it happen. Any thoughts she had dissolved when his hands shifted lower from around her waist to spread wide over her backside, and then she could feel the heat of his aroused body through the material of their clothing. She tried to ease even closer, wanting to be absorbed in every inch of him if possible.

  And the kiss went on as he continued to ply her mouth with his taste, the same one she’d only sampled last night. She was following his lead and his tongue was coaxing her into byplay so sensual she would probably faint dead at his feet if he didn’t have a tight hold on her.

  Moments later when he released her mouth she drew in slow, ragged breaths. Never had she been kissed that way before and she didn’t want him to stop.

  “Tell me to walk out that door now, Cathy. Tell me. Because if you don’t, I will make love to you all over this place. It’s been a long time for me and on top of that I’ve hungered for you, desired you, have dreamed of burying myself inside of you so deep that it wouldn’t bother me in the least if we got stuck.”

  Cathy swallowed tightly. No man had ever painted such a heated picture for her and her mind had already fast-forwarded to him being buried inside of her, thrusting in and out even when they didn’t have any energy left. Then going to sleep with him still buried inside of her.

  Years ago Jen had brought her a vibrator as a gag gift but she’d never used it no matter how hot her dreams of her and Orin together had gotten. Now she was glad she hadn’t. He would give her the real thing, something she’d waited nearly twelve years to get and she wanted it now. She had waited long enough. They both had.

  She tilted her head up and met his gaze. “I won’t ask you to leave. The only thing I’ll ask you to do is to relieve me of my sexual misery, Orin. Fulfill every dream and fantasy I’ve had of us together making love. And I’d like very much for you to do it now.”

  A smile touched his lips. “That’s no problem,” he said, and unbuttoning his polo shirt and not wasting any time pulling it over his head and tossing it aside. He stood there and her gaze roamed over his hairy chest and broad shoulders.

  She inched toward him and took the tip of her finger and traced a path from the center of his neck downward toward the middle of his chest. “Have I ever told you how much I admired your body, and how good you look in sweats?”

  She recalled working late one night and he’d returned to the office on his way to the gym to pick up something he’d left. He’d once told her that he stayed in shape because of his sons. It wasn’t uncommon for him to practice with them during whatever sport they were involved in.

  “No, but then I’m sure I’ve never told you how good you look in a short skirt. You have nice legs. I’ve never seen a more gorgeous pair.”

  She threw her head back and laughed.

  “I’m not giving you a line, Cathy. I mean it. I think you’re one sexy woman. And I love this new hair style on you,” he said, lifting his hand and pushing hair from her face.

  She almost got scorched from the heat in his gaze and slowly began moving her hand agai
n, this time lower to rest at the waistline of his khaki pants. “Don’t we want to take this off?” she asked in a low tone.

  “Might as well,” he said and his gaze held hers as she unsnapped his pants and began easing down the zipper. She was enjoying this, an intense intimate foreplay and couldn’t remember when she’d last engaged in such an activity. She let her fingers do the work as she held his gaze, watched him intently and when her hands slid between his boxer shorts and took his hard rod into her hand, she heard his sharp intake of breath.

  “Umm, I like the way this feels,” she whispered, leaning closer to him and taking a slow lick of his lips. “I’ve been thinking of doing this for…umm…twelve years now.”

  The surprise that flickered in his eyes was touching. But she thought, nothing was as touching as what her hands were doing to him. She had pulled his manhood out of his pants and was taking physical contact to a whole other level; stroking him just like she’d always dreamed of doing.

  “I wouldn’t do that too much longer if I were you.”

  She lifted a brow. “And why not?”

  A seductive smile touched his lips. “You’ve known me long enough to know I like to get even.”

  “How could I forget?”

  “I don’t know. How could you,” he countered, beginning to walk her backwards toward the bedroom while his hand stayed firmly planted on her backside.

  He would occasionally lean in and lick her lips. When the back part of her legs touched the bed, he smiled down at her and asked, “Do you plan to let that go?”

  She chuckled as her fingers tightened more firmly around him. “I like having you in the palm of my hands.”

  “Don’t say I never warned you.”

  And then without warning, eased her back on the bed and lowered his head and licked a kiss across her lips before taking her mouth with a hunger that astounded her. She let go of him to wrap her arms around his neck as he deepened the kiss in one slow, intense exploration.

  She heard herself moan deep in her throat and then he pulled back, stood away from the bed, to remove the rest of his clothes. She watched him through desire filled eyes and when he was completely naked, he returned to the bed and her. He slowly removed her caftan, pulling it over her head and tossing it aside, leaving her entire body naked.